"Benny! Thank you so much for coming. I really needed this." Mark took Benny's coat and hung it on the hook next to the door.
"Where is he?" Benny asked.
"He is in the second bedroom and Collins is out shopping. He needed to get away for a while. Do you want a drink?"
"No. I think I will just talk to Roger." Benny walked into the second bedroom and saw Roger laying on the bed facing the wall. "Roger?" Roger looked up and saw Benny.
"What are you doing here?!" Roger said with as much hate in his voice as he could muster.
"I am here to talk to you. Can I sit down?"
"No you can't sit down. You can leave though. Do you want me to show you the way out?" Roger stood up and walked toward Benny. Benny stood his ground and stared at Roger. He had known that it would be hard to talk to Roger about what had happened. Roger had never been very fond of Benny, and a couple of things had happened that had deepend his hate.
"I am not going to leave Roger. I am going to talk to you no matter if you listen or not. I need to talk to someone." this had been Benny's plan from the start. He had decided that the best way to make Roger feel better was to act like Benny was having a harder time that Roger.
Roger walked out of the room and into the living room. Mark had been sitting on the couch and he jumped up when Roger entered.
"Did you bring him here? because if you did you can take him out again. I dont need to talk to anyone Mark! ESPECIALLY NOT HIM!" Roger pointed at Benny who had followed Roger into the living room.
"Benny- I-" Benny cut Mark off.
"No Roger...Mark didnt bring me here. I came by myself."
"DONT FUCKING LIE TO ME! He has been bringing people to talk to me for the last couple days. I dont need to talk to ANYONE! SO GET OUT!" Roger walked back into his room and slammed the door. Mark remained silent and looked at the floor. They were quiet for a while until Mark whispered,
"Do you want to-"
"I will wait." Benny said firmly. "I will wait until he comes out. He has to hear me out."
Benny stayed at the small apartment on Avenue A until all the lights in all of the other apartments went out. While mothers were putting their kids to sleep, Benny was sitting on the couch with a beer and Mark was sleeping in an arm chair.
Roger refrained from showing his face until the afternoon the next day. When he finally opened the door and came out, Benny was ready for him.
"Are you ready to talk?"
Roger didnt say anything. He opened the fridge and took out a beer. He opened it with the opener on the fridge and sat down across from Benny on the couch. He didnt say anything, he just took a drink of beer and laid on his back.
"Ok...so...Roger. I know that you are going through a really hard time right now about Mimi." Benny knew that it was a weak start to a speech that he had been thinking about, but he had nothing else to say then to state it blankly.
"No, is that what you really think. You think that because I have lost the two people I loved most in the world, that would make me...like this!" Roger was standing now. "Of coarse I'm sad! Why dont you guys understand. This is going to take a long time to get over. Collins knows what I mean. He lost someone!" a tear ran down Rogers face.
Mark took a step closer to Roger and put a hand on his shoulder. "Roger, I-"
"DONT TOUCH ME! Why can't you all just leave me alone. I have to get through this alone. ALONE!"